STO Developer Diary #12 for Season 5: Anniversary, New Ships Incoming

Rohn

Stephen D'Angelo published a new dev blog giving some idea of what's coming in the very near future, including an event for the Second Anniversary, as well as some information about new ships entering the game:

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2838

 

"Q isn’t the only one celebrating, however. Starfleet Command is commissioning the new Odyssey class cruiser starship that weekend. Players level 5 and above should report to Engineer Kani (in front of Admiral Quinn’s office on Earth Spacedock) for a mission to take one of the new Odyssey class ships on a shakedown cruise. Complete the mission to receive an Odyssey class ship of your very own.

When the Klingon Defense Force intelligence service alerted the High Council with Starfleet's activities, they decided to launch their newest ship, the Bortas (Vengeance) class starship the same day. KDF officers level 21 and above should report to Engineer Tum’Era (in front of the Great Hall on Qo’noS) for a similar shakedown mission. Those who complete the mission will earn a Bortas class ship of their own to command.

These two ships will be free to everyone during the event, regardless of level or rank."

lightningjac

Wish they made more ships so we could have more of a choice to what kind of ship we want...like i want a escort

Rohn

I believe there's a pretty wide array of ships to pick from right now.  This event centers around cruiser class ships, certainly.

They did release some info about the Bortas in a Dev Diary, which looks great.

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2842

 

They also released info on the Odyssey:

http://www.startrekonline.com/node/2839

Rohn

For those interested, the anniversary event began today as scheduled.  BranFlakes has posted a short FAQ spelling out some of the details:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/announcement.php?f=226&a=10

ShardWarrior

My 2 cents on the Odyssey/Bortas...

I simply cannot stress enough how poorly designed and written the mission to obtain these ships is.  This has got to be the most amateur work out of Cryptic yet.  The mission itself is so farbeyond stupid that they should just give you the ship token when you log in.  Far and away the absolute worst piece of mission/quest content I have ever seen in a MMO.  I cannot believe someone at Cryptic got paid real money to write this.  It is so bad, I would not even have used the mission since the ship is free.  To say it read like a 5 year old wrote it is being kind.

Anyway, the mission stinks.  As for the ships themselves, I do think the designs they chose were good ones.  The Odyssey is a fine looking ship.  I was not all that sure about it when the design won the contest, but seeing it in game now, I have to say I enjoy the look.  They did manage to give attention to detail so my hat is off to them on translating the ship design from paper to game.

In terms of performance, I cannot say I am all that impressed by it.  The turn rate is just dreadful and to be honest, the Universal Bridge stations simply do nothing for it in my opinion.  I can see my Science captains getting the most out of it, but for Tacticals and Engineers I will definitely be keeping this in drydock and sticking with Escorts and Sovereign.  The lack of the Universal Ensign slot makes the Lt. Commander station less useful.  I wound up using the stations just like I do my Sovereign and Galaxy Dreadnaught, so unless I want to have a different looking ship, I will not be using the Odyssey.  It is definitely nice to have as a free ship though, so take it for what it is worth. 

I will not even get started on how badly designed the Bridge is for the Odyssey either.  It is overwhelmingly apparent that there will be a "Odyssey Bridge/Interior" pack in the C-store along with a far better version of the ship next month.

I actually thought the Bortas was better.  I like the 4 tactical consoles and the slow turn rate keeps it from being too overpowered.  I did not get a chance to play it too much last night but will mess around with it some more over the weekend.

Overall I did not find either of these ships to be all that great.  I have no doubt this is deliberate to entice players to buy the "good" versions in the C-Store.

Oh, and one last thing... if anyone from Cryptic actually reads these .... please, please, please, please stop putting weapon firing points on NACELLES!! 

Karahandras

Originally posted by ShardWarrior

My 2 cents on the Odyssey/Bortas...

I simply cannot stress enough how poorly designed and written the mission to obtain these ships is.  This has got to be the most amateur work out of Cryptic yet.  The mission itself is so farbeyond stupid that they should just give you the ship token when you log in.  Far and away the absolute worst piece of mission/quest content I have ever seen in a MMO.  I cannot believe someone at Cryptic got paid real money to write this.  It is so bad, I would not even have used the mission since the ship is free.  To say it read like a 5 year old wrote it is being kind.

Anyway, the mission stinks.  As for the ships themselves, I do think the designs they chose were good ones.  The Odyssey is a fine looking ship.  I was not all that sure about it when the design won the contest, but seeing it in game now, I have to say I enjoy the look.  They did manage to give attention to detail so my hat is off to them on translating the ship design from paper to game.

In terms of performance, I cannot say I am all that impressed by it.  The turn rate is just dreadful and to be honest, the Universal Bridge stations simply do nothing for it in my opinion.  I can see my Science captains getting the most out of it, but for Tacticals and Engineers I will definitely be keeping this in drydock and sticking with Escorts and Sovereign.  The lack of the Universal Ensign slot makes the Lt. Commander station less useful.  I wound up using the stations just like I do my Sovereign and Galaxy Dreadnaught, so unless I want to have a different looking ship, I will not be using the Odyssey.  It is definitely nice to have as a free ship though, so take it for what it is worth. 

I will not even get started on how badly designed the Bridge is for the Odyssey either.  It is overwhelmingly apparent that there will be a "Odyssey Bridge/Interior" pack in the C-store along with a far better version of the ship next month.

I actually thought the Bortas was better.  I like the 4 tactical consoles and the slow turn rate keeps it from being too overpowered.  I did not get a chance to play it too much last night but will mess around with it some more over the weekend.

Overall I did not find either of these ships to be all that great.  I have no doubt this is deliberate to entice players to buy the "good" versions in the C-Store.

Oh, and one last thing... if anyone from Cryptic actually reads these .... please, please, please, please stop putting weapon firing points on NACELLES!! 

Would like to second these two points.